Product Reviews: Empress RDBMS and Just Logic/SQL RDBMS

The bottom line in choosing between these two Linux database packages is one of cost versus time and user programming capability.

Manufacturer: Empress Software Inc.

Phone: 301-220-1919

E-mail: sales@empress.com

URL: http://www.empress.com/

Price: $1500.00US

Manufacturer: Just Logic Technologies Inc.

Phone/Fax: 800-267-6887; 514-642-6480

E-mail: info@justlogic.com

URL: http://www.justlogic.com/

Price: $295.00 US

Reviewer: Rob Wehrli

In my quest for a formidable relational database management
system that would run under Linux I came across a pair of
applications that fit my wish list very well. I needed a database
that was fast and easy to use, set up and manage. The system had to
work in an Internet/Intranet environment, support multiple users
and be vastly configurable. The cost had to be within my
budget.

I tested Empress RDBMS first. Marketed for Linux, it includes
several features that make it a clear choice for discriminating
individuals and businesses who can afford it. I then tested Just
Logic Technologies' Just logic/SQL RDBMS, a product which does not
include as many bells and whistles, but does offer core
functionality for about a third of the price of Empress.

The first thing I noticed when the Empress package arrived at
my door was 18 bound and 7 unbound (loose-leaf) manuals. This
documentation set is fully cross-referenced and includes titles for
the core server installation, server management and administration,
client utilities, 4GL application development platform, web server
interface, ODBC driver, SQL reference, GUI Builder and much more.
The manuals are printed in easy-to-read fonts with page numbers in
bold and chapter data included on every right-side page. Each
manual includes a complete index and a diagram with the entire
documentation roadmap directing attention to the order in which
manuals should be consulted. Empress gets a resounding “A+” for
their documentation and additional kudos for complete man pages
that complement their hard-copy documents.

Installing Empress from the installation diskettes requires
basic Unix system administration experience. While the installation
documentation is complete, the diskettes included a broken
cpio command on the label. Nothing too difficult
to overcome—merely an annoyance in an otherwise outstanding
presentation. Installation of the Empress GUI Development and
Runtime requires installation of Motif (libXm) libraries and
knowledge of the path to their locations. Unfortunately, I was
unable to test this feature of the Empress product bundle as my
a.out-based Motif libraries were not recognized by the installation
program.

Dismissing the minor installation difficulties and getting to
the meat and potatoes of testing Empress left me pleased with the
package contents. Several utilities, such as the interactive SQL
interface and the dBase file import and export programs, provided
me with considerable appreciation for the talent and foresight of
the Empress development group. While every SQL interface is
“interactive”, Empress is truly interactive in that it is capable
of, among other things, prompting the user during table design for
specific table attributes and for related variables. This is enough
to excite even the most placid DBA. If you use the
empsql interface for inserting data, it prompts
for user input and is useful as a front end for data input by
non-programmers.

Plugging Empress into my particular application required
little more than prototyping a database in Access 7.0 and using the
ODBC driver to export the tables to Empress. This worked with
numeric data types quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, the
Access text data type produces problems when exporting tables from
Access to an Empress database. I did receive a prompt reply from
Empress' e-mail support claiming that this anomaly is due to
different definitions of text data types between Access and Empress
and that Access cannot export text attributes to Empress because of
this dissimilarity. It seems to me that Empress should develop a
workaround for developers using Empress ODBC and Access for
database prototyping. Working without a text data type is not a
viable option. One solution for those DBAs using Access is to
export data from Access to a dBase or comma-delimited text file,
then import to Empress using their fine import utilities. I also
found no support for varchar data types.

The first databases I built were simple tests to see how well
the Empress utilities produced desired output. Empress performed
flawlessly, and the Interactive SQL tool is a real glowing ember in
a crowded fireplace of functional components. Their
empsql and supporting configuration files allows
for custom user configuration, much the same as configuring an
e-mail reader. For example, I selected joe as my
SQL editor instead of the default vi for
console-based edits.

Testing the speed of the database with data imported from a
combination of Empress utilities was very straightforward. I
decided that several joined tables and multiple nested queries
would provide a good performance test. Empress produced results far
above my expectations. I was suitably impressed with the raw speed
at which Empress rushed data back to the screen. A search of
810,000 records, where several calculations, conversion of data
types and summing and ordering of resultant sets was required,
completed in less than 15 minutes. By comparison, the same query on
an SQL server machine(1) took
about 28 minutes.(2)

Incorporation of an Empress database into a web environment
is accomplished without hassle using their DataWEB package. Writing
HTML forms with Empress extensions to query the database is
straightforward for anyone with a little HTML experience. My Red
Hat 4.0 system, installed with the supplied Apache httpd server,
integrated quite nicely.

My final test, which says as much about Linux as it does
about Empress, included flipping the power switch to the off
position in the middle of a query. After several minutes of waiting
while fsck fixed my purposely distorted file system, Empress
recovered without any noted glitches. Of course, I was hoping to
crash the database to test the on-line backup utility, but it would
not crash. I didn't get mad—I got even. I deleted the database,
and it restored quickly and without incident. I was ready to query
once more.

Empress also includes a report writer that I was unable to
test due to scheduling limitations.

Lacking in Empress is much of what is lacking from many
commercial RDBMS products today, full SQL-92 support. A
point-and-click management tool would be nice and even recommended,
since it is standard fare with Microsoft's SQL Server. Considering
the cost of the Empress package that I tested is about $1500, it is
a bit expensive when compared to the cost of a typical Linux
distribution. However, the ease of use of its utilities and the
completeness of its documentation man pages and on-line help make
it a good choice in the professional world. It is a remarkable
product that will benefit the many Linux users who find it a
perfect fit for their needs.

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